


Ouahe (Dwelling Place)

by bentleys



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/F, Post-Time Skip, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-17 15:22:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5876020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bentleys/pseuds/bentleys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>She turns back to Nami, who’s watching the little scene with amusement, and Vivi’s heart leaps all over again to see her standing there, flesh and blood and bones.</i><br/> <br/>Over two years have passed since Crocodile's defeat; in that time Vivi and Nami have known nothing of each other except for a few brief letters. But as Nami heads from Weatheria to Sabaody to rejoin the crew, she ends up in that desert country once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ouahe (Dwelling Place)

**Author's Note:**

> _Ouahe_ or _wahe_ means "dwelling place," and is the word for "oasis" in Coptic Egyptian.

There is a stranger at the bottom of the stairs. Fabric is draped over their head; not particularly unusual or suspicious in this desert country, but all the same obscuring their identity. A guard is speaking to them, voice low. Vivi’s only watching out of the corner of her eye as she helps Terracotta carry a meal to her father, but her body is tense anyway. There’s some habits you can’t kick; alertness is one of them.

Then the stranger pulls off their hood—orange hair tumbles out, and Vivi’s eye is caught by the brightness of it. She turns and she’s too far away to be sure, but she sees a small sharp nose and smattering of freckles and she feels tears spring to her eyes unprompted and she jerks to a stop. She doesn’t drop the platter she’s holding but it’s a close thing. She shoves it into the cook’s arms instead and closes her eyes, pulling herself up straight. She knows that face, she’s sure if she gets up close she’ll see a tiny scar bisecting one eyebrow, she’ll see light brown eyes over that nose and a smile like she owns the world.

She runs down the corridor and she’s laughing at the awkwardness of trying to take stairs too quickly and she thinks there is a voice behind her calling her name but to hell with it. She almost stumbles at the bottom but she catches herself, and she feels like a kid again as she launches herself into Nami’s arms. “You came back! I knew you would!”

Nami yells as she catches her, voice bright and loud and lawless. Nami hefts Vivi up, spins her once before depositing her on the ground. Vivi pushes her hair back with one hand and she can’t stop grinning.

Nami’s grinning wide, too, and Vivi can’t catch her breath.

“It’s just me, sorry,” says Nami, and Vivi’s heart drops.

“Is everyone alright? I’ve heard—” she hesitates, because she’d never dare say it. “—um, I’ve heard people saying things about Luffy.”

Nami waves a dismissive hand and Vivi feels like a fool for even letting the thought cross her mind. This is Luffy they’re talking about.

“Everyone’s fine,” Nami says. “We’re split up now, but we’re all going to be meeting up soon. I thought—well, knowing this crew, we’ll probably be moving nonstop once we get on the sea again, so I thought—” she looks mildly hesitant in a way Vivi has rarely seen –“I thought I should come see you, before that.”

Vivi reaches to take her hand and Nami gives it willingly. “Thank you,” Vivi says simply; these days she can’t afford to hide her feelings from those who matter. “I’m glad you came. I’ve missed you.” Her mouth quirks up in a smile. “I think most of the palace is aware I follow your crew’s adventures, so I’m never short of newspapers or the latest rumors, but we both know how unreliable those sources are.”

A throat clears pointedly behind them and they turn in unison to see the guard who’d been speaking with Nami looking uncomfortable, eyeing their still-joined hands. Vivi drops Nami’s hand with reluctance and turns to him, reining in her emotions to an appropriately royal level.

“Yes?” she prompts.

“Princess, if you know this woman, we can welcome her formally to the kingdom,” he says, looking skeptically at Nami’s battered and dirtied cloak.

Vivi raises a hand, breath still fluttering with excitement. No, there’s no time for matters of the kingdom now. This is personal. It’s hers and it’s one of the few things that she can truly claim for her own selfish reasons. “No, that won’t be necessary. I do know her, and because I know her, I’m going to go talk to her. In my quarters. Alone.”

He looks like he desperately wants to protest but knows it’s worthless, so he just sighs instead. “Will you permit me to search her first, Princess?”

She laughs off his over-polite tone, which most of the palace staff only ever use when they disagree with her.

“I won’t. Trust that I can take care of myself, please.”

He nods and she sees a hint of a smile in it; her people have learned to hold their faith in her. She turns back to Nami, who’s watching the little scene with amusement, and Vivi’s heart leaps all over again to see her standing there, flesh and blood and bones. Suddenly shy, she holds out a hand, and is reassured when Nami takes it, calloused palm hot in her own.

“This way,” she says, and as she pulls Nami forwards she glances back at the guard, sticks out her tongue. There’s a time and place to be childish and this miracle, she thinks, is one of those times. He just raises an eyebrow and it’s like she’s a kid playing with her food at a state dinner; except this silliness matters more and she feels old in it.

She pulls Nami up the gilded staircase, to the left at the third banister, down the hall and into her antechamber. She closes the door behind them and feels giddy in their privacy for reasons she can’t understand.

“You have to tell me everything,” she says, mind spinning. “We can sit in here. I have—wine, and food—” she cuts off at Nami’s laugh.

“What, my letters weren’t enough for you?”

“A hastily written letter every five months or so? I don’t think so.”

Nami nods, still smiling. “I’m sorry. I guess that ‘I was busy’ probably won’t hold up that well as my excuse?”

Vivi needs something to do with her hands so she opens up the cupboards, pulling breads and fruits onto the counter. “Actually, I really can’t imagine having much time to write letters on a ship with someone like Luffy.”

Nami hums. “Well, I was actually only with everyone for...I don’t know, maybe five months after we left Alabasta. We’ve been split up since—since Marineford.” She doesn’t need to elaborate on what she means by that name.

“Oh,” says Vivi. Nami’s letters, while always exciting to receive, had barely revealed anything more than the crew’s continued survival, and certainly not any separation. She’s pulled out glasses and her hands tighten on them. “Two years is a long time to be alone.”

Nami shrugs. “It’s what we needed to do, I think. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw the message Luffy had left for us, but. He knew best, as he does more often than I want to admit.”

“Well, it’s Luffy,” she says automatically, and feels herself blush slightly.

“He’s got a knack for that sort of decision,” Nami acknowledges.

Vivi stares at her hair, so much longer now than when she last saw it, and wonderfully tangled from the hood of her cloak. “Tea now, wine after?”

Nami laughs at her, covers her mouth with one hand. “You don’t have to do all that, you know. I’m not some royal guest.”

“Well, I want to!”

Nami shrugs. “Look, I’m a pirate who grew up poor. I’m fine with whatever.”

The weight of her station (as in transition as it has been these last few years) hits Vivi like a punch to the stomach. “It doesn’t have to be wine, we have—uh, beer, and—”

“Beer is fine. I like beer.”

“O-okay.”

“I could drink you under the table, I bet,” says Nami seriously, eyebrow raising in challenge, that sly smile that Vivi still remembers creeping up her face.

“Probably,” Vivi concedes, “but I bet I could hold out longer than you think I can. I haven’t been coddled my whole life like you might think.”

“Well, one day I’ll take you up on that claim,” Nami says, “but tonight’s for talking, right?”

“Yes,” says Vivi, and God her head still feels so light.

“So let’s sit,” Nami says, and she scoops up the food Vivi’s set out in her arms, “and eat.”

 

Nami sits in the middle of the floor, cushioned only by the several blankets she’d thrown down upon entering Vivi’s chambers. She’s pulling the bread apart with her teeth, washing it down with the beer while Vivi still sips her tea, and she’s starting to feel not so awkward. When she was with the Straw Hats they sat on the floor all the time, and in much less comfortable places. They’d sit in a circle, like they were all equals, and now she’s sitting across from Nami for similar reasons.

“It was fucking amazing,” Nami is saying. “I tell you. I didn’t think I’ve ever see anything like it again, but then I ended up living on Weatheria for two years, so. But anyway, the point is we broke her hull coming down, and she’d been hurting for months, having carried us so far, so we gave her a proper sendoff. We sail the Thousand Sunny now—or, well. We will again soon.”

“What’s she like?”

“The Sunny is the most beautiful ship I’ve ever seen in my life,” Nami says frankly. “She was built by our crew’s shipwright—you never met him, but he’s ridiculous and amazing—of special wood so she’s extra hardy, and she has all sorts of gadgets and add-ons.”

“Sounds like she’s a ship that can really match you guys.”

“That’s exactly it,” Nami says, and smiles big around a mouthful of pita and beans.

Vivi’s sad to hear about the loss of their ship; even if she feels she can’t quite understand the depth of their love for it, she knows how much it means to them. _There’s so much I missed_ , she thinks. But it isn’t like she’s been twiddling her thumbs for two years here at Alabasta, either, and as she watches Nami clear her plate she’s struck with the knowledge of how much they both have changed.

Nami throws back the last of her beer, slams the tankard on the ground when she’s done with it in her familiar wild style. “You sure you don’t want any beer?”

Vivi shakes her head. “No, I don’t like the taste.”

Nami shrugs. “That’s fair. Okay, well, I’m done then,” she says, and carefully balances the tankard on top of her emptied plates.

“Let’s just put everything in the sink for now,” Vivi says, “I’ll deal with them tomorrow.”

Nami raises an eyebrow. “You wash your own dishes?’

“Of course,” Vivi says, and, well. That’s all that needs to be said, really.

 

  
“I traveled, too,” Vivi says, hours later, after Nami has showered and they’ve both changed into pairs of Vivi’s pajamas. Nami’s damp hair is curling around the curves of her shoulders and the reality that Nami is here, and can sit and talk, is sinking in to Vivi and she wants to share a little of her side of the story as well. “I mean, not much, I couldn’t that much, but—I needed to see it again. The world, I mean.”

“You never mentioned that in your letters.” And it’s true, Vivi can berate Nami’s for their lack of information but she didn’t exactly give much away either.

“It was too much—felt too heavy, like I needed to explain it in person and even then it wouldn’t be enough.” She smiles. “I was also quite seriously warned about the potential dangers of providing pirates with my location.”

“Well, hey, that’s fair, I could still be planning to rob you. Steal that million beri prize I never got.”

“I’m sure they’d give you some award, if you wanted.”

“I’d rather just take it,” Nami says, and she stretches her arms up and sighs contentedly before spreading herself across the bottom of Vivi’s bed that they’re both now perched on.

“You’d get away with it too, Ms. 16-million-beri cat burglar.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

Nami props herself up on her elbows and looks at Vivi seriously for a moment, eyes dark in the dim lights. “But anyway,” she says, her voice soft, “tell me. What was the most beautiful thing you saw out there, in the big wide world?”

“Oh,” says Vivi, “there are so many things…” There’s trees higher than any building she’s ever seen; diamonds glowing at the bottom of impossible caves; a castle built into the side of a mountain and a palace on a lakebed; and of the course the blue sea that stretches on and on and on.

Still. She knows almost instantly what she’s going to say.

“There was...a musician. A woman.”

“A woman?”

“Yes. She played a qanun—do you know what that is?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t really know that much about music.”

“It’s beautiful. It’s triangular, and stringed—almost like a harp? But it lies flat, and she laid it across her lap. She had...painted fingernails, and her fingers moved so fast over the strings it was like magic.” Her voice is catching in her throat just remembering it and she doesn’t understand why. “I wish you could hear it. Everyone in the company danced when she played this one song that was so lively you couldn’t help but want to move to it.”

Nami is smiling, head propped in her hand. “Did you dance?”

“Yes—I probably shouldn’t have, it wasn’t safe! But I’ve been given so many dance lessons, I wanted to use them.”

Nami laughs which is like its own form of music. “I wish I could see you dance, then!”

Vivi feels her face heat up. “I’m sure I could get a musician in here, if you wanted? We could…” her voice trails off.

“That isn’t really what I had in mind,” Nami murmurs. “I was thinking something more private. Just the two of us.”

“Oh,” breathes Vivi. The shawl over her shoulders had felt comfortable when she put it on, but now there’s a strange heat in her stomach and she shucks it off, bare shoulders leaving her feeling exposed. “It’s warm in here, isn’t it. I can—”

Nami is just looking at her with that gentle smile on her face. Vivi stares at Nami’s hair, the scarf that is falling off her shoulders, her hands, anything that isn’t her mouth.

She’s thrumming with energy. There’s only one thing she can think of to do, so she just does it. She didn’t use to be this brave, but, well. She appreciates things more these days, and this night has been leading up to this since Nami first set foot in the palace. She leans across the bed and kisses Nami.

Nami’s mouth is warm and this isn’t her first kiss, she had those stupid little-kid kisses with Kohza, but this is different, _oh God_. It’s different because it means something, because there’s passion behind it, because Vivi really fucking loves it.

She loves it but she comes to her senses and jerks back from Nami like she’s been burned, gasps, “I’m sorry.”

“Shit,” Nami says, eyes wide, the light from Vivi’s oil lamps pooling around her eyes, her lips. “Don’t be sorry.”

“If you want—” Nami says just as Vivi says, “I’m sorry, I want—” and they both laugh.

“Whatever you want,” Nami says, “I think you should take it.” And she cups Vivi’s face in her warm hands, pulls her close, and kisses her again.

This kiss is deeper, proper, and Vivi is drowning in it. Like this whole damn night she doesn’t know what to do with her hands but she wants to be closer to Nami so she grabs her shoulders, pulls her in tight, the heat of their bodies mixing. Nami is mouthing at her, tongue and teeth against her, and _holy shit is this what kissing women feels like?_ Nami turns her head, breath heavy and hot, and the new angle means Vivi can use her tongue too, and she opens her mouth cautiously and she should be scared, maybe, everyone always assumes a royal woman will be scared the first time she experiences passion, but it feels so good.

“Oh,” she says, when Nami pulls away to breathe, because what else is there to say?

“Is that what you wanted to do to the musician?” Nami murmurs, leaning her head against the curve of Vivi’s neck.

“I don’t know,” Vivi says breathless.

“Is it what you want to do to me?”

 _Yes yes yes_ , her mind says. “I think so.”

Vivi can feel Nami move and she thinks the other woman might be smiling against her neck.

“This is not what I came here expecting,” Nami says, “but I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

The magnitude of what she’s doing crashes down on Vivi all of sudden and she stiffens and Nami must feel it because she raises her head.

“You okay?” Nami asks her, one hand reaching up to touch the side of her neck, cradle her jaw.

“Yeah,” breathes Vivi, “I just need a minute.”

She stretches out on her bed, the bed she’s had since childhood, looks up at the familiar fabrics and lamps and shelves and cushions that surround her. It almost feels like they should look different, but they don’t.

After a moment, Nami lies down beside her, facing her but eyes carefully not meeting her own. Vivi watches her watching the flickering flames of the lamps that illuminate them, stretching blue shadows across Nami’s face and almost making her look a stranger until the flames jump and there’s a flash of pink freckles and a rounded jawline and a perky little nose.

Nami reaches out a cautious hand; her fingertips brush against Vivi’s face, little pinpricks of heat. Sometimes Nami is like a storm, loud and brass and unpredictable. But other times she’s steady as the calm sea. And like any good navigator she knows what’s needed and when. Vivi needs this tranquility now, this quiet strength. She reaches her own hand up just as slowly, touches the little silver scar bisecting her eyebrow. Nami shivers a little, says “Your hands are always so cold,” and smiles the gentlest smile.

Vivi falls asleep with the lamps still shining, her head pressed up against Nami’s chest, Nami’s body curved to protect them both even though they know they are safe here. Nami’s hand is tangled in the waves of Vivi’s hair, her breath slow and steady.

Vivi dreams of butterflies and lions, mountains that stretch up into the sky and caverns that cut across the land, is happy in her knowledge that it means nothing more than that she feels safe enough to imagine such wonderful things.

 

* * *

 

It was when she was ten years old that she and Kohza had kissed each other, hidden under the branches of a big sycamore tree near their play space, like it was another game. It was, they were both reasonably sure, what adults were supposed to do.

She’d hated it. It had scared her and she’d gone home and pretended it hadn’t happened, but then her father had seen her tears and, worried, prompted her for answers. The story spilled out of her and her father’s face had folded into a smile of relief that she was not hurt. He’d turned serious again almost immediately, though, and rested his big hands on her small shoulders. “You don’t have to kiss any boys that you don’t want to, Vivi,” he’d said. And then he’d looked at her, really looked, and maybe he saw something in her that she herself wouldn’t understand for years, because then he said, “You don’t have to kiss any boys at all, if you don’t want to.”

After that, he always tried to make sure she knew that she could be queen all on her own if she wanted to, if she needed to. She didn’t believe it until she became Ms. Wednesday, until her back hurt from sleeping on the ground and not just from naps during playtime, until there was the weight of her country pushing down on her shoulders. She was only a child still but in those years of gaining the trust of Baroque Works she learned a more important lesson—that she could have faith in herself. She had felt that weight pressing on her and come to know that she could straighten her legs and carry it.

 

* * *

   
When Vivi wakes in the morning, the bed is still warm but Nami isn’t there; though there’s not even enough time to wonder at it before she sees her, knees bent on a cushion and brushing out her hair with Vivi’s comb.

“Good morning,” Vivi says, her voice coming out rough with sleep and she remembers all the times waking up near Nami aboard the Going Merry.

“Good morning,” Nami says, smiles brightly up at her. “I made us breakfast. I mean, I’m not a cook or anything, but I put some stuff together.”

“Oh,” says Vivi, because no one’s made breakfast for her in years; when she regained her position she wouldn’t let them. It’s alright if it’s Nami, though. More than alright.

“Thank you,” she says, feels her face a little bit and hopes she’s not blushing. Nami just shrugs in response, as if to says it’s nothing, and hops up from her cushion to head to the kitchen. She returns a moment later carefully balancing two trays full of breads and fruits and jugs, the muscles in her arms flexed from their weight.  


Vivi jumps up to help her and they set the trays down on the floor once again. Nami pours her a glass of water, and Vivi retaliates by pouring her a glass of juice. They laugh at each other and maybe it should be awkward after last night but it isn’t, at least not yet. Nami lays across the floor and Vivi leans back against her bed; they eat slowly and leisurely. Nami brought napkins and handwipes so they don’t even have to get up, just push the trays aside so they can keep talking.

“I have a sister,” Nami is saying, her body splayed out across the blankets. Comfortable; like she’s at home. “I love her more than anything. _Anything_. You understand?”

Vivi nods, because she does.

“This is for her,” Nami says, stretching her arm out to gesture at the tattoo twisting over the scar on her shoulder. “I did so many terrible things for her, and for my village, my people. I’d do a hell of a lot to protect them, and in the end I learned they’d do a hell of a lot to protect me, too.”

Her eyes are in shadow but Vivi can still feel the weight of her gaze.

“I left because I had to, because I’d been trapped there, and because I wanted to travel the world. I didn’t think I’d ever find that again, that loyalty. That—family.”  


Her voice is heavy in her throat now, and Vivi hardly dares breathe.

“I used to cry about my bad luck,” Nami says. “I thought if any gods existed they must really hate me. But—” her voice wavers, though Vivi knows she will not break. “But what are the fucking _odds_? Of finding people, a family, that you’d die for twice in your life?”

She raises her head to smile at Vivi. “I love my crew so damn much,” she says. “I never tell them that because they’re a bunch of assholes, but. It’s true.”

“Thank you for sharing them with me,” Vivi finds herself saying, but Nami shakes her head.

“You’re one of them, okay? Always, always,” she says and when she takes Vivi’s hand and presses soft kisses onto her knuckles, Vivi’s entire body feels warm.

They are silent for a moment, emotion heavy in the air. “When you left—” Vivi starts. “Those marks on your arms,” she whispers, “they meant a lot to me. To be included like that. _A lot_. Can I show you something?” When Nami nods, she turns around so that her back is to Nami, and lifts up her hair.

She hears Nami’s intake of breath and says, “I got it done on the one-year anniversary of Crocodile’s defeat.” The tattoo on the back of her neck is simple; just black ink in the shape of an X. The women who’d inked it onto her skin hadn’t understood its significance, no one had. Until now.

“It’s beautiful,” says Nami.

“It’s just an X,” laughs Vivi. Two lines big enough that they mean she can’t wear her hair all the way up for official appearances, but she doesn’t mind.

“No,” says Nami, and her voice is strong and insistent now. “It’s a promise.”

Nami looks up again and her eyes catch in the light.

“I hope in coming back, I’ve kept my end of that promise.”

“You have,” says Vivi, and she grabs back Nami’s hand and presses her own kisses to it as well, then one onto the scar and tattoo on her shoulder. Nami laughs, light and happy, and pulls Vivi’s neck forward, soft warm hand pulling her hair aside ever so gently to kiss the tattoo.

The lights are getting low, still running on last night’s oil, and the air is warm with the heat of them, and Nami starts sucking and biting at Vivi’s neck, making another mark that is entirely her own. The sensation is new and Vivi squirms under it, gasps out an insistent yes when Nami asks her if she likes it. Nami’s hand are up on her shoulder to brace herself and she’s been working on her neck for what feels like ages but is probably just a few minutes, when all of a sudden the palace bell starts ringing.

Nami gasps against her neck and mutters, “Holy shit,” at its insistent marking of the time, and then they both collapse into giggles, their laughter all the brighter for the intimacy it follows.

“It’s two,” Vivi says when they’ve both calmed down a bit. “Do you want actual lunch?” and Nami says, “Sure.”

They have to get up properly, then, and pulling apart is a little awkward at first after their sudden burst of energy, but Vivi presses a hand to her neck and Nami winks at her to lighten the mood. Vivi bathes while Nami tries on her clothes, and when they’ve both made themselves presentable, a scarf around Vivi’s neck to hide their shared secret, Vivi leads Nami downstairs to the dining hall. More often than not these days, her father is too weak to comfortably take his meals out of his room, and while she wants Nami to meet him again, the thought of it being just the two of them versus her father’s keenly observant eyes is a bit overwhelming.

They’re late; they dine with the servants since they’re the only ones left. Nami throws herself down like she owns the place; Vivi sits beside her awkwardly pretending that she _doesn’t_ , in fact, own the place. The woman across from her looks wary for a moment, but when Maidy comes in and spots them she just sighs dramatically, and turns and yells at Terracotta that the princess has finally decided to grace them with her presence.

Terracotta stomps out a few moments later with heavily-laden trays for them, berating Vivi in her booming voice. Nami laughs out loud at Vivi’s guilty face, which seems to endear her to the servants at the tables, some of them even laughing too. Terracotta smiles at her in the end, tells her to eat with them more often before everyone forgets what she looks like, and with that the tense atmosphere starts to loosen. Vivi doesn’t do much publicly for her own enjoyment; most of her comfort time is spent in private. It’s refreshing to have Nami for herself, but also to be able to share her with her people.

Nami is sociable as always, joking with the servants near her with ease. Her laughter comes often and sometimes Vivi joins in, and under the table Nami grasps her knee, turns and offers her a secret smile. They stay until the last of the workers are done, and bring up their trays with everyone else. When they’re alone in the corridor again, Nami stretches big, exclaims, “What a crowd! I love this city,” and Vivi kisses her before she can even finish the words.

Nami laughs underneath her mouth and Vivi grabs her hand, pulls her, both of them stumbling into a run, across the palace. Sunlight pours in through the tall window, and Vivi urges Nami down the different hallways, through arches and doors, showing and sharing her territory like Nami shared the Going Merry years ago. It’s give and take with them, now, and Vivi is content in the knowledge that they each have something to gain from the other.

 

  
“Here it is,” Vivi says, later, when they’re in her rooms again. In her hand is pearly white shell; a tone dial, the one with the recording of the qanun player on it. She’s cleared the space in front of her bed, cushions pushed to one side where Nami is currently sitting.

“I can’t describe it, so—uh, I hope you like it,” she says awkwardly, then places the dial on the table to her left and starts it.

The notes start off slow and Vivi is a taken with it as she always is, no matter how many times she gets the dial to replay the sound. The quality isn’t as tinny as many other dials, it’s clear and pure as it had been that night, when she’d felt like there was only her and music. Only now Nami’s here too, on this island of sound with her.

She wants to just let Nami listen but as the tempo picks up, notes falling like the pitter-patter of rain, she lets her body start moving, arms drifting up above her head and lifting her hips to the beat. She dances over to the lamp nearest them and Nami laughs as she pinches out the flame with her fingers, darkness falling over half of the room.

She extends her hand and Nami takes it, lets herself be pulled into the center of the room.

“Now imagine there’s sand under your feet and every star in the sky above your head,” Vivi says.

“It’s beautiful,” says Nami. “And, so are you,” she adds, and she lifts their hands up, bodies against each other as they move.

Nami isn’t a dancer and after a moment of laughter filled, off beat movement, she falls back onto a cushion. Vivi keeps going, and her movements aren’t the ones she’s been taught anymore, it’s just the sound and her body. She turns, twists, lets her head fall back and her arms stretch towards the ceiling. She feels loose, free, brave; so when what she knows is the last stanza starts, she pulls Nami back to her feet and kisses her. Nami surges to her like the rising tide, her hands coming up to cup Vivi’s face.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” she gasps when they break apart, Vivi’s breath pounding in her chest.

“It’s nothing,” Vivi says, giddiness bubbling up out of her. “Sometimes I think you could take whatever you wanted from me.”

“Well,” Nami says, and one hand is still on Vivi’s cheek but the other is tangled in her hair, “it’s you, so I’d ask permission.”

“You have my permission to steal me away, then,” says Vivi, and Nami cocks an eyebrow, then with only the barest moment of hesitation she reaches down to pull up Vivi’s thighs, heft her up. Vivi half yells-half laughs in surprise and wraps her legs around Nami’s waist as Nami grins at her, one arm on her hip and the other bracing her shoulders.

“Well, I don’t know how far I can carry you, you’re heavier than you look,” she says, but she manages to make it to the bed before she lowers Vivi down, laughing and tumbling onto the bed after her.

There’s a moment where they just lie there, looking at each other with bright curious eyes. Nami’s cheeks are red, freckles stand-out, and Vivi can feel that her own face is heated too. Nami bites her bottom lip and when red blossoms from the indent of her teeth Vivi can’t help but lean across to kiss her.

They kiss and it starts off slow but Vivi is impatient, opens her mouth against Nami until she returns the favor, and then it’s tongues and heat and Nami’s hands are on her face, her neck, her shoulders.

One of Nami’s hand is on her chest and the other is against her hip when Vivi groans with pleasure, feels the tight hot desire growing in between her thighs. Nami flicks a thumb up under her shirt and just that touch is enough to get her arching. Nami laughs and leans over, kissing the open line of skin between her top and her skirts, hands pressing against her back, and oh God, Vivi should probably say something now.

“I want to, but—I’ve never really done this before,” Vivi manages, one hand coming up to brace against Nami’s shoulder.

“That’s okay,” says Nami, but she slows her hands. “Do you know what you like?”

 _Yes_ , thinks Vivi, yes I’ve explored and yes I’ve touched myself and oh God please I want you to touch me too—

“Yes,” she says, out loud, and Nami grins at her like a cat that’s won its prize. But while her smile may be fierce her hand is gentle as she lets it drift down Vivi’s chest; so cautious and slow that it’s almost cruel and Vivi pushes her body up, desperate for more. Nami laughs and slides one hand under Vivi’s back, the other lifting up the hem of her shirt and Vivi gasps at the sudden exposure of her skin and the press of Nami’s hands against the bottom of her stomach.

She’s noticed on her own that this part of her is sensitive, but her own hands are nothing compared to Nami’s, even the slightest press of Nami’s fingertips along her stomach, sweeping across the fine hair leading down from her belly button, has her shivering, gasping a little at the overwhelming sensation of it.

“You okay?” whispers Nami and Vivi nods, eyes closed and head back.

“Yeah,” she says, and she’s feeling so damn brave right now so she grasps at Nami’s hair, says, “ _more._ ”

“Okay,” Nami murmurs and then her mouth is on Vivi’s stomach too, her tongue hot and warm and Vivi laughs a little breathless laugh because she can’t believe this is happening.

Nami kisses the juts of her hipbones and rubs her fingers against the little dips in her flesh, little scars and folds and dimples. She flicks her tongue out against the band Nami’s skirt, a wet kiss of welcome.

“Can I go under your skirts,” she asks, and Vivi can barely speak but she gasps out, “Fuck, _yes_.”

Nami laughs, “It’s fucking hot when you swear,” she says, and then her warm fingers are under the band of Vivi’s skirt, rough fingertips rubbing over the lines of Vivi’s hair.

Nami is gentle but insistent as she pulls down Vivi’s skirts and underthings, tugging them off of her until Vivi just has her unbuttoned top and the blanket beneath her. They’ve seen each other mostly naked before, but this time she can feel Nami taking the time to _look_.

“That’s not fair,” she tells Nami, “I want to see you too,” and then Nami’s eyes widen and she grins, and pulls her top over her head. She isn’t wearing a bra and Vivi reaches out a hand to touch her breasts, and Nami is warm under her hand and laughing at the expression on her face.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t at least played with your own before,” she says, but before Vivi can defend herself Nami is lying across her, pressing their bodies together, and her nipples are hard against Vivi’s chest. Vivi bites at her own hand to keep from crying out and she can’t help but press her other hand against her own breasts, the thin lace not doing much now, the pricks of her nipples visible.

Nami looks up at her and her eyes are dark with arousal and she says, “I’m going to touch you between your legs, now,” and as soon as Vivi nods she feels a hand between her thighs, cupping her warmth.

Nami presses against her and parts at her hair and pulls at her and Vivi is pushing her body up, her thighs around Nami to try and feel even more of this. Nami pulls herself up onto her knees so she’s in between Vivi’s spread legs and Vivi has a few seconds to lament the loss of contact before Nami slides her free hand down Vivi’s thigh to join the other, and this sensation is new, gloriously new.

“You have to tell me what you want,” Nami says and her voice is deep, husky, and Vivi is gleefully struck by the realization that she’s not the only one of them that wants this desperately.

Nami’s fingers travel up and then her thumb presses ever so slightly against Vivi’s clit and Vivi gasps.

“That,” she says, “Uh, slower, and—steady—” and she’s struggling to keep her words coherent when her mind is yelling _just touch me!_

“Okay,” says Nami, and her fingers close on Vivi and Nami is rocking them back in forth, shaky at first but she evens out their rhythm like she would the keel of a ship.

“Oh _God, yes_ ,” Vivi gasps and Nami moans a little in her throat as she works at Vivi, one hand rubbing at her while the other presses further down, and maybe it’s just luck but it could be he navigator’s intuition guiding her because Vivi sucks in a breath, thighs shaking as her body asks for more. She’s wet, so wet for Nami and she squirms as Nami raises her hips, thighs sliding against Vivi’s.

“ _Nami_ ,” Vivi huffs out, and Nami mutters something under her breath that Vivi doesn’t catch but that sounds almost like one of those old sailor’s prayers. Nami takes one hand off Vivi and she’s about to complain but then Nami slides her hand underneath the band of her own skirt, pulls down her layers until she’s naked too, still between Vivi’s bare legs.

“Sorry,” she says. “I need—” and she presses her hand between her legs and in the glint of the lamps Vivi can see she’s wet too, swollen, ready for the touch.

Vivi’s breath hitches in her throat and Nami keeps working on her, working on them both and Vivi pulls her down closer. Nami’s breath is against her neck and Vivi’s hands are pressed against her hips and Nami’s nimble fingers are still at it. After a few moments Vivi can feel an orgasm starting to be teased out of her, takes a hand off Nami to muffle her mouth, but she still yelps a little as the wave of pleasure breaks over her.

Nami rides it out with her but then she takes her hand off of Vivi’s trembling body and lets it join her other, eyes closed and focusing on herself now. Vivi’s leaning back on the bed staring up her, sensations seem muffled by her arousal but Nami looks fucking glorious, twisting above her. Nami pushes at herself and shifts her thighs, and Vivi can’t help but gasp, “oh,” and Nami’s eyes flutter open.

Nami stares at Vivi as she comes; darkened eyes looking right at her, and Vivi is alight with the knowledge that it’s her, that she’s the one who’s doing this to Nami.

When she comes down from it Nami pounces on Vivi, grabs her shoulders, laughing and rolling their bodies on the bed.

“You’re magnificent,” she says, and Vivi can’t do words right now so she just cups Nami’s face and kisses her again and again and again.

The evening stretches long in front of them; they’re so distracted by each other that they barely even notice the tolling bells that had interrupted them earlier. Vivi had thought she knew her body but it turns out there’s still things to explore with someone else—and more importantly, she’s learning Nami’s body too.

Nami isn’t soft and smooth all over like the boys in the Suna Suna gang used to dream of. She’s cut up all over by hundreds of lines of scar tissue, pinks and silvers depending on their age. When Vivi runs a hand over her thighs, there’s little raised lines of stretch marks under fingers, rolling like the waves of the ocean, showing her where Nami has grown. Nami’s arms slope around her muscles and her palms are calloused from her Climatact and Vivi is overwhelmed with the sensation of her, the way she isn’t anything like Vivi was expecting, but at the same time, how could she be any different? She wants to press a kiss to every defining mark but there’s so many and Nami is kissing her back, exploring her body, too. She’d thought that she’d be nervous to be looked at this way, but it’s alright when Nami does it; her gaze is cool and assessing but never judgmental.

It's late by the time they exhaust themselves; there’s only one small window in Vivi’s room and through it Vivi can see the sun has set, the night sky blue and infinite above them.

“We missed dinner,” she says. Nami’s curled up with her head against Vivi’s stomach and she yawns and resettles before responding.

“Let’s eat later,” she says, “I don’t wanna move right now.”

“Okay,” says Vivi, because she doesn’t want to move either, they’ve made a mess of each other and of the bed, but they can clean up later, too. They have time, for once they have _time_ with each other, even if it’s not much. A few days at an oasis is still enough to refresh you for your journey.

Her eyelids are starting to flutter closed and she lets them; drapes an arm over Nami and pulls a blanket over them both, and once again she falls asleep to the soft sounds of Nami’s even breathing.

 

  
This time Vivi wakes first. Early morning sunlight trickles in through the small window and it’s an easy awakening; she comes to herself slowly and then feels the warmth of Nami against her, the softness of her hair against Vivi’s chest. She feels the stickiness between her thighs, too, and her face heats at the memory of it, but it’s a good embarrassment that’s mostly just happiness.

For a few moments she just watches Nami, but then the commanding, busy part of her kicks in and she rinses the plates in the sink, tidies up the place a little bit before returning to prod Nami awake.

“Hey,” says Nami, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Hi,” says Vivi. “Want to get cleaned up? We can use the hot baths.”

Nami stretches, her legs pocked with scars and freckles kicking out from under the light sheets. She smiles at Vivi as she arches her back and sits up.

Nami kisses her, closed mouth and chaste. “Okay.”

They wrap themselves in Vivi’s bathrobes and then Vivi takes Nami’s hand and pulls her down the hallway, a finger against her lips prompting quiet. It’s still early, gentle pale light filtering through the windows across from the stairs.

The baths are empty, though, like Vivi knew they would be. They’ve been redone since Nami was last here and she hears her whisper “Wow,” at the jade-lined rims of the tubs.

“The water’s already hot,” Vivi says, and lets the robe fall off her shoulders, feels Nami’s eyes on her back as she steps into the cleansing area. When she turns around, Nami’s eyes are still on her, unabashed.

“Join me.”

“I am,” says Nami, and she pulls off her robe, then grins wickedly as she backs up several steps to run and jump in after Vivi.

Nearly too-hot water splashes up against Vivi and she yelps in surprise but it descends into laughter when Nami’s hands are on her, grappling her into a playful hug and pushing them both down into the water.

“You’re ridiculous,” Vivi says, breathless.

“So are you,” Nami says, her skin flushed pink with the heat.

They stay in the baths too long, leaning against each other in the water, each woman’s gentle hands rinsing the other’s body. Vivi feels warm and clean in the all the ways that matter, like she could stay here forever. Her skin is starting to wrinkle and she won’t stay in that much longer, they can’t—but right now, Nami’s hands washing her back, it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, just that it feels so good. Steam drifts up around them, smoothing out the rough edges of everything like sandpaper. Nami is humming something as her hands travel over Vivi’s back and it takes Vivi a few minutes to realize it’s the qanun player’s song. She leans back and Nami takes her weight, easy, still humming the tune.

 

* * *

   
Here is what they both know to be true, so true that it doesn’t even need to be spoken aloud: Vivi will never be able to take Nami from the sea; conversely Nami will never be able to take Vivi from her people. (It’s a classic tale, really.)

Perhaps by some accounts that means they’re star-crossed lovers, but Vivi can’t see it that way. They met once upon the sea; an impossible accident. They couldn’t have been anything, then, both too tangled up in their own pain, Nami recovering from hers but Vivi right in the midst of it. They made it out alive and stronger with a bond to last a lifetime and a promise that if they saw each other again it would be as friends, crewmates, more than that.

In over two years apart they had time to grow into themselves, in body and mind and life. It’s not fate that brought them together again, it was fighting for the chance themselves. No one else has to know that deep in the palace of Alubarna, for a few nights, the crown princess sleeps curled against a pirate from one of the world’s most infamous crews; they are an island to themselves, calm in the eye of the storm. Even if it’s not for long, they share each other’s warmth; a spot of green and growth in the arid stretch of the desert.

 


End file.
